Jeff Quin

SA river boat captain says he has the best job in San Antonio

Interview By Kathleen Petty

I worked as a college and university administrator for about 18 years and one day I thought, ‘Is this really what I want to do with the rest of my life?’ And I decided I wanted to do something more fun. So I started looking at other career options. Just more than 10 years ago I saw an ad in the paper for boat captains. I applied and a couple weeks later I was out on the river. I committed myself to one year to see if I liked it and here I am 10 years later.

Generally, I work a five-day week. I always do the Sunday morning taxi from downtown toward the Museum Reach. Every other day I work at night. I always volunteer for all of the parades, including the Holiday Light Parade.

The city and Rio San Antonio, which runs the boat cruises, long ago agreed on a script that includes 48 points about San Antonio. To be a boat driver you have to be able to cover those points and drive the boat safely—not one or the other, but both. Still, you have to keep your sanity when you do something eight or nine times a day so I have five to six variations of my tour. A little bit of it comes down to reading your audience. The type of person who gets on at 11 a.m. on a Sunday is different than the person who gets on at 10 p.m. Friday.

I try to engage the audience. I’ll ask them if they knew the Tower of the Americas is the second tallest freestanding tower. Most people think it’s the Space Needle in Seattle. I always try to point to where the San Fernando Cathedral is and tell people about the light show, Saga. History has always been a favorite topic of mine so talking about the Battle of the Alamo and the missions—I never get bored by it. I’m always researching to learn more. Then I can memorize the little sound bite from the script and rotate other facts I’ve learned about a building or person to break up the monotony.

When things go wrong you roll with the punches. I have little toys I carry for when kids get restless. Those are the little secrets that relate to why I’m still doing this 10 years later.

Other people like to work out or play tennis. I’ve done those things. For me, coming to work is fun. Every night, it’s show time. It’s not a job for everybody, but for the right person, it’s the best job in San Antonio, and maybe even Texas.

Photo By Josh Huskin

This article appears in the December 2016 issue of San Antonio Magazine